ORLANDO – In a time of tumult in American health care, hospital medicine can expect to see a reimagined – but not reduced – role, said the outgoing and current presidents of the Society of Hospital Medicine at Monday’s HM18 opening plenary.
Despite the many successes of the relatively young field of hospital medicine, there’s no room for complacency, said SHM’s immediate past president Ron Greeno, MD, MHM.
“It really is true that the road to success is always under construction,” said Dr. Greeno, senior vice president for medical affairs at Team Health, North Hollywood, Calif.
Dr. Greeno drew on his 25-year career in hospital medicine to frame past successes and upcoming challenges for hospital medicine in the 21st century.
As the profession defined itself and grew from the 1980s onward, “the model was challenged, and challenged significantly, mostly by our physician colleagues,” who either feared or didn’t understand the model, he said. All along, though, pioneers in hospital medicine were just trying “to figure out a way to take better care of patients in the hospital.”
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